Native North American Art

This lively introductory survey of indigenous North American arts from ancient times to the present explores both the shared themes and imagery found across the continent and the distinctive traditions of each region. Focusing on the richness of artwork created in the US and Canada, Native North American Art, Second Edition, discusses 3,000 years of architecture, wood and rock carvings, basketry, dance masks, clothing and more. The expanded text discusses twentieth- and twenty-first-century arts in all media including works by James Luna, Kent Monkman, Nadia Myre, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Will Wilson, and many more. Authors Berlo and Phillips incorporate new research and scholarship, examining such issues as art and ethics, gender, representation, and the colonial encounter. By bringing into one conversation the seemingly separate realms of the sacred and the secular, the political and the domestic, and the ceremonial and the commercial, Native North American Art shows how visual arts not only maintain the integrity of spiritual and social systems within Native North American societies, but have long been part of a cross-cultural experience as well.

Janet Catherine Berlo is Professor of Visual and Cultural Studies at the University of Rochester. She has taught Native American art history as a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, and UCLA, and has received grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Getty Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Ruth B. Phillips is Canada Research Chair and Professor of Art History at Carleton University in Ottawa. She has served as director of the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology and as president of Comite International d'Histoire de l'Art (CIHA), UNESCO's world art history organization. She has been a visiting professor at Cambridge and Harvard Universities and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.